Topic Content
- What is Police Brutality?
- “Police brutality or police violence is legally defined as a civil rights violation where officers exercise undue or excessive force against a civilian. This includes, but is not limited to, physical or verbal harassment, physical or mental injury, property damage, and death. In some countries, ‘the color of law’ protects officers from ambiguous situations.”
- [Emesowum, Benedict (5 December 2016). "Identifying Cities or Countries at Risk for Police Violence". Journal of African American Studies. 21 (2): 269–281]
- Breakdown the definition into parts and refer back to it when explaining policing.
- “Police brutality or police violence is legally defined as a civil rights violation where officers exercise undue or excessive force against a civilian. This includes, but is not limited to, physical or verbal harassment, physical or mental injury, property damage, and death. In some countries, ‘the color of law’ protects officers from ambiguous situations.”
- Discuss types of police brutality
- Using Mapping Police Violence, we offered some examples of data that clearly illustrated the injustice occurring in black communities. Showing data helped our parents understand the magnitude of the problem:
- “Black people were 24-[27]% of those killed despite being only 13% of the population.”
- “Some of these disparities are explained by socioeconomic factors — such as poverty, unemployment, segregation, and neglect by the police when it comes to serious crimes— that lead to more crime and violence in black communities. As a result, police tend to be more present in black neighborhoods — and therefore may be more likely to take policing actions, from traffic stops to arrests to shootings, in these areas.” – Vox
- Find more data at Mapping Police Violence ! and this New York Times article .
- Why is talking about police brutality important?
- Right now, a lack of proper policies and procedures in the police force is allowing police officers to get away with a variety of criminal offenses, including murder. there aren’t proper screening processes and there are lack of policies that require officers to use less force and more communication.
- Check out useofforceproject.org
- Right now, a lack of proper policies and procedures in the police force is allowing police officers to get away with a variety of criminal offenses, including murder. there aren’t proper screening processes and there are lack of policies that require officers to use less force and more communication.
We are researching more about the police and will be uploading more resources soon to help y'all talk to your families about it!
Questions asked by the Community
They asked for the original sources for the data and even followed up with us days after the meeting to discuss how the data clearly showed them the gross injustices of police brutality.
1. "Is the data being shown only focusing on certain communities, or is it showing a comparison across racial groups?"
2. “If we can’t call the cops, who do we call?”
3. “I have heard the statement: ‘all cops are bad cops,’ what about the people who do follow the rules?”
4. “What can we do to avoid being a bystander when the police are being violent towards a Black person? How can we safeguard our rights during a situation with the police while also being good allies?”
5. “How come lawyers have to go for multiple years in college but police don’t have to?”
6. “What can people do to feel more comfortable with cops?”
1. "Is the data being shown only focusing on certain communities, or is it showing a comparison across racial groups?"
- We referred them to Mapping Police Violence and clarified that the statistics also showed comparison to highlight the specific injustices the black community is facing, because many parents did not understand the distinction between the black community and other POC communities in this regard
2. “If we can’t call the cops, who do we call?”
- We did not directly address the topic of Police Abolition as many parents were new to the topics discussed, so we will be addressing that in future meetings
- Nevertheless, this question was the major discussion point for this section. Some parents felt that as South Asian Americans, they did not have the power to make change.
- Most of all, parents were scared of not having an alternative to the police that they felt comfortable with
- To warm up to the topic of police abolition, we talked about what it means to “defund the police” and how funds could be reallocated to efforts that uplifted the community and reduced the roots causes of crime.
- We encouraged the older kids to give ideas based on what they had seen on social media and organizations such as Reclaim the Block
- Some ideas the kids came up with were regarding education and after-school programs, health care and mental health services, affordable housing, and employment services
- We encouraged the older kids to give ideas based on what they had seen on social media and organizations such as Reclaim the Block
- We also discussed the weaponization of police and how divesting money from precincts would help de-weaponize policing and hopefully reduce cases of police brutality
3. “I have heard the statement: ‘all cops are bad cops,’ what about the people who do follow the rules?”
- We discussed the distinction between the individual cops and the institution of policing to help explain the differences
- Also, we focused on the 4 cops involved in the murder of George Floyd. While there are differences between the individual cop who commits murder and the other cops who were bystanders and helped facilitate the violence, we explained that both types of actions are forms of brutality and cause injustice
4. “What can we do to avoid being a bystander when the police are being violent towards a Black person? How can we safeguard our rights during a situation with the police while also being good allies?”
- This question was asked by a parent and many parents expressed concern for safety while still wondering how they could help.
- We discussed that intervening is a tricky situation because oftentimes it is illegal. We warned against taking the law into their own hands. However we made sure to point out the things that witnesses have done in the past:
- Video taped the interaction
- Gathered more people around to watch so there would be more witnesses
- Called the police department directly and reported violence so it would go on record
- We also discussed ways to avoid police escalation when we have encounter to police:
- Showing ID
- Being respectful to police
- We mentioned that we have rights: we don’t need to say anything at that time, we only need to speak if you are explaining and we are the victim
- Keeping our hands on the wheel where they can see it
- Making sure to roll our window down and close it before exiting our vehicle
5. “How come lawyers have to go for multiple years in college but police don’t have to?”
- This question was asked by a younger kid
- We opened the room for comments here because there isn't one clear answer to this question.
- We explained that the training that they receive is simply to protect citizens. Right now, people are protesting for the answer to this question. The fact that police can decide to be judge, jury, and executioner in the spur of the moment and the fact that there are a lack of policies that advocate for the safety of the civilian is a huge factor in the rise of police brutality.
- We urged kids to understand this policy loophole so that they could see how deeply rooted it is in the source of the problem.
6. “What can people do to feel more comfortable with cops?”
- This question was asked by a parent and specifically from the perspective of how people from (our) South Asian community can feel more comfortable with the cops
- Other parents suggested that the community reach out to the local police and begin building better relationships with them
- However, we emphasized the distinction between the general South Asian American relationship with police and the relationship between the African American relationship with the police in many communities
- We also drew the conversation back to how the South Asian community should not help increase the violence of police against the black community so we also gave ideas from this post about alternatives to calling the police (created by @tapioca_starch)